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Friday, December 25, 2015

Lots of food almost everywhere here in the Philippines, other countries, in celebration of family reunions and the holiday, Christian season.

And this is near the subject of

"Peak food" or "more global hunger"
and related hypothesis or conspiracy theories. And they remain as conspiracies, spreading and alarmism. Here's a good observation and chart from Dr. Spencer, January 29th, 2015,

“food production is
not limited by available land…it depends upon demand. If demand rises, so does
food production. Hunger, malnourishment, and starvation are not due to a lack
of food. They are almost always due to governmental policies which hinder
farming or hinder the prosperity needed to import food….”

A world of rising... famine, or abundance? There is more
food per capita now, and more in the future. The prophets of doom and alarmism may consider findinng other more useful jobs. Also from Dr. Spencer, March 18th, 2014.

“Here in the U.S,
as well as globally, grain production as well as yields (in bushels per acre)
have been on an upward linear trend for at least 50 years, primarily due to
improvements in varieties (e.g. with greater drought tolerance) and growing
practices.”

Just as Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 bestseller The Population
Bomb predicted that millions would die due to food shortages in the 1970s and
1980s, the article in 2015 tries to capture readers’ interest through unfounded
fear. Let’s take a look at the actual state of global food production."
May 26, 2015. http://fee.org/.../capitalism-defused-the-population-bomb

(2) "For the first time, the world is eating more fish
from farms than from the open sea, spurring billions of dollars of takeovers as
one of the largest food companies seeks to capitalize on rising demand.

Fish consumption is growing at a faster pace than beef,
pork and poultry, driven by an expanding, increasingly prosperous global
population that recognizes the health benefits of eating seafood. Demand is
forecast by United Nations to outstrip supply in coming years. Wild fish aren’t
going to fill the gap, and that leaves farming in lakes and coastal waters --
also known as aquaculture -- to make up the shortfall."http://www.bloomberg.com/.../hungry-fish-farms-lure...

(3) "The future of food is not bleak, as Liu suggests
and mainstream media agrees, the future of food looks fantastic. Since the
1970s American farmers, who embrace science more than any in the world, have
grown more food on less land in a way 1970s projections believed was only
science-fiction. If Europe and the
developing world embraced science the way American agriculture does, not only
could we grow the same food we have right now, we could let farmland equivalent
to the entire region of Amazonia go back to nature and not lose a single
carrot." http://www.science20.com/science_20/no_we_have_not_reached_peak_food-152734

Yes, we have entered the period of rising productivity and prosperity. Governments and NGOs of alarmism should step back from more regulations and interventions in various innovations in food production, storage, marketing and distribution. Innovation and competition among players, big and small, plus civil society volunteerism can address problems in distribution to the most vulnerable and poorest sections of the population.
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